WOMEN IN BUSINESS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1234, 16 September 1911, Page 11

WOMEN IN BUSINESS.

A GBADUAL EXCLUSION. Largo employers in the United State?, whej'o more women perhaps than ill any other country earn a living as clerks and secretaries, are gradually'coining, to the conclusion that it is better commercial and industrial policy to employ menwher-, ever possible to the exclusion of women, says the American correspondent of the "Daily Mail." The reason given for this significant and important change ill tho attitude of employers is that "women aro interested primarily in matrimony and regard their work merely as a temporary expedient." Foremost among the protagonists of- tho new movement, apart from the _ Post Office, aro the great railways and industrial corporations. Gradually, gently,

'HATS ..FOR MORNING WEAR. almost secretly, they aro replacing women employees with men. Only the other (lay the .Southern Pacific Railway, imitating the policy already adopted by a number of Eastern railways, issued a new regulation prohibiting the employment of women in the Western passenger department. This is only one of a dozen similar cases in which the door of employment has been closed softly, but none the less definitely, in the face of women.

As a well-known railway manager expressed it, "We are not slamming thfl door against women. We fear the general outcry, and unfounded criticisms, such action would cause. In-the-Administration ot railways continuous service is a priino requisite. We need employees .-who aro eager to climb the ladder of promotion. Unfortunately wonien regard business as a makeshift. They become stenographers and clerks, not with a view to obtaining higher positions, but merely to earn enough money temporarily to meet their needs. A woman holds a position with her eyes open for the first chance of leaving it. Her main desire is marriage, and as soon as the man appears she deserts tho office for tho home."

According to the head of a large co'rapany women shorthand writers and clerks on an average do not work longer than three' years. After that they marry. Moreover, those who do not marry and remain in omploymtnt after thirty years of age do not improve like men. They rarely strive to raise themselves into executive positions, to "branch out," or help build up their company as men do.